YUP TO DA YOOP!

So the other day, I think it was Monday maybe, I was out at Lower Harbor taking pictures and Rip Tide rock. The pictures did not turn out the greatest but it was WINDY!!!! I don't remember what the wind chill was but I remember seeing the snow blow so hard across the park and the harbor, it was beautiful! Cold as all hell though! When I got out of my car, the wind blew my door right shut. Hahaha. Hello winter!!! She was laughing and talking and saying hello today...yes she was.

So I am on a new venture. I have a new motto - "Yup to da Yoop!" - I have stickers and bumper stickers being made and will be selling them. Not sure where yet. It's me saying YUP to the U.P.! Already copyrighted and everything. :-) I can't afford to do T-shirts, but we will see. Maybe if I find someone with a printing press, we can cut a deal! It will go well with my all things Yooper :-)

So I am on this 'watching what I eat' kick. NOT a New Years REsolution, I don't make those. Just an OMG I am getting fat I need to start watching what I shove in my face kind of resolution. Epiphany maybe. So I have been doing OK. Not wonderful, but OK. Have not had soda or chocolate for like a week now. I did drink a whole 1.5 L of wine last night so that doubled my calories that I was NOT supposed to have. Um...ya well, yesterday I did not feel like adulting so I didn't. Until I got home and guzzled wine like it was the last cheap brown bag covered bottle I'd ever see. (It really was not covered in a brown bag but still sounds good). I did wake up at some ungodly hour of the morning with a pounding headache and an empty wine bottle pointing and laughing at me.....'You want to be an adult, here you go, muahahaha'. Dirty rotten wine bottle. Anyhow, it worked. I woke up totally adulting today. :-) Which leads me to the whole point of this paragraph - Bigby Coffee - located next to Arby's. I SO WISH THEY HAD A DRIVE THRU. Of course then I would be broke. They have AMAZING smoothies. So today I opted for strawberry banana, ok that is the only one I ever get. But it is made with real fresh fruit. I love it. And 99% of the time, I am too lazy to go there and park my car, I just want to drive thru and get my fruit smoothie. But today I went in. NOMNOMNOM. Loving it. Still wishing they had a drive thru.

So I am looking forward to a couple of events this year - The UP 200, which is from the 11st to the 15th of February and the Trenary Outhouse Classic - Feb 27th. AWESOME!!! I have a new Mad Bomber hat I am dying to wear out in the cold and my bright red Cardhardt. I will probably look like a real Yooper, blending right in.

That is all for this gal. Any of you who don't know, I work for the Home Builders Association of the UP, down on Front street, and we are selling garage raffle tickets for $10 a ticket. Win a 24x24 garage (if we sell enough tickets). If we don't - well then it goes to a 50-50 and the winner gets a buttload of cash. Last year we gave away $4300 to the winner! Get your tickets at my office - 309 S Front Street, Suite 102 or call me and we can do a debit or credit card over the phone. 906-228-2312. Winner winner chicken dinner!


:-)
Not adulting all the time - S

Yooper Winter Fun

So I am on a quest to get photos of Yooper Winter Fun - if you know of an event going on, please let me know! Comment on here or find me on Facebook under Sarah Timm (maiden name). On my list so far is snowmobiling, skiing, U.P. 200, Trenary Outhouse Races, bonfires in the snow - and the usual every day activities - snowblowing, using your Yooper Scooper and Roof Shovels. I do have 4 tickets to an NMU Hockey game so that will be in there as well!!

For those of you still reading - I am the Executive Officer for the Home Builders Association of the Upper Peninsula. We are selling raffle tickets. You can win a 24x24 garage or up to $10,000!!! Tickets are $10 each. Get them at 309 S. Front Street, Marquette. Suite 102 - first door on the right. If we do not sell enough tickets to give away a garage, it turns into a 50-50 raffle! Last year, we handed the winner a check for $4300 !!! We also take credit cards over the phone - if you would like to buy a ticket or three - call me at 906-228-2312 Monday thru Friday 10 am to 3 pm and you can purchase over the phone. I will send your half of the ticket to you and a copy of your filled out ticket stub. Spread the word!! Trying to sell 2500 tickets!!

Ok enough for me tonight - let it snow let it snow let it snow...(omg was that me saying that.....who am I, where am I....)

....um...still.....hating...winter?? eh hem.......or so I say.

Thanks U.P. fans!

So I shared this blog with a couple of U.P. and Yooper groups on Facebook and people have been sending compliments and private messaging me on how much they enjoy it. WOW! Thank you so much!!! I did not really expect such a positive feedback!!

Thank YOU, my Yooper fans - for sharing your little piece of heaven with a Cheesehead like me! And thank you to my Yooper, for introducing it all to me. :-)

So, to Kari - you mentioned a few more food places. So Donckers and I have gotten quite familiar with each other. Tony and I received 2 Donckers Christmas boxes this year and OMG!! I love their candy!! THANK GOD I ate most of the good stuff before I started my diet yesterday!! Vangoes was actually the very first place that Tony ever took me to eat. Very good! And Casa Calabria I have not been to yet! I also tried Lagniappe as well - although I am not a Cajun fan, I did find one of their sandwiches that was delish! L'Attitude was great - we went there for several lunch meetings for work. I had the Bell Tower burger - AMAZING. Let's see where else have I eaten - Togo's, Aubrey's - very happy there!, Jeffrey's -LOVED IT, My bucket list in the next 6 months includes Casa Calabria, The Chop Shop, Das Steinhaus, The Marq, New York Deli, Babycakes Muffins, and I am sure several more I stumble upon. Although, I still love Jean Kay's and Coco's for lunch. Them two and Donckers have to be my favorite lunch places to go. The Vierling is still my fave nighttime establishment. I have not been out to too many places - Red Losbter - one of my old faves - service and food was great but it took us forever to get checked out and out of there - miscommunication I think, it was weird, and Applebees - always good food and service.

Ok see I am on a diet and you have me talking about food. Being that I am on this kick of losing 30 lbs - and I can't really afford a gym membership - I am doing it the old fashioned way. Watch what I eat and exercise. So part of my exercising is going to be walking at the Dome! I will have plenty of time to walk and think about stuff to write and the interesting people I see there! Hoping to start this on Monday! We shall see!!

So I bet all of you Yoopers are excited that we got snow and that we are getting more snow! I can hear the wind howling outside right now...brrr! That is ok - my dad got me a nice gift certificate to Getz's for Christmas and I got myself a Mad Bomber hat, I love it! Oh and some Spyder gloves and a Cardhardt stocking hat. Thanks dad for keeping your daughter warm up here in the U.P.!!

I just started this post to thank you all and look, I went on blabbing, oh well, isn't that what blogging is all about? Stay tuned. I am hoping to get some great snow pictures...snowmobiles, skiiers, all kinds of Yooper winter activity!! :-)

Stay warm Yoopers!!! Keepin my ear flaps down - S

Winter on Lake Superior...In All Her Frigid Beauty

Happy New Year! January 1st,2016. A new year has started. And the lake is still as big and beautiful as it always has been.

Although, yesterday, when I was driving to work - coming over the hill on 41 and into Marquette - the lake was such a dull blue-gray that you could not see where the big lake ended and where the sky began. The big lake-sky camouflage in front of me was dreary that morning. As I got closer and down to my office and saw the lake up close, it was flat and still, like glass, but dark, almost black. The words that sprung to mind were depressed, morbid....watery grave. I thought of off of the seamen, the crews, the captains - all of the lives that she has claimed over the years and kept in her depths in a breathless hug. It was cold and dark, the way she looked yesterday morning. After work was a different story. I drove down Lakeshore and was amazed and in awe as I went past Wright and Hawley streets. Just a few days ago, closed down to large waves coming over the rocks and onto the roadway. The trees left standing were all frozen in time...covered in ice - as each wave and each icy breath she blew froze the trees in a magnificent pattern. It was like she made time stand still. See some of the pictures below. She really is magnificent. Off to Presque Isle where she spoke to me, a different lady, a different language than she is in the summer. The wind was icy, bitter cold on my cheeks, my eyes watering just from the air she breathed. But I smiled, and laughed and took pictures as more proof of her capturing time was scattered here and there in icy tree sculptures, locked in mid-dance.

That was my yesterday at the lake. What a wonderful way to end a blissful year. So many wonderful things have happened in my life this year. It started with January 1st, 2015, when my love ran out to the car after me when I was leaving his apartment last year, and told me he had fallen in love with me. It was the happiest moment in my life that I can remember in a very very long time. Then my move up here - I am blessed to with someone I adore and love to the ends of the earth....who treats me like his equal...who I gave my heart to. This move has been nothing but positive for me. And my daughter got married this year. I am overjoyed at how happy she is with her new husband and I could not ask for a better son-in-law. I hope for nothing but love and happiness for them. I got to see my dad and his girlfriend, and most of the brothers and sister over the holidays. Tony's sister had a brand new baby girl, little Evelyn...2015 was full of love and happiness for us all.

Who cannot deny that frigid beauty? She is cold. She is hypnotizing. She catches your breath. Come and see her someday...

To a great 2016 to you all -

~S - cold and loving it